Variety’s 10 Screenwriters to Watch 2016

10 Screenwriters to Watch

Here are Variety‘s 10 Screenwriters to Watch for 2016.

Courtesy of Heather Waraksa/Todd Komarnicki

Kristina Lauren Anderson

(“Catherine the Great”)

When Anderson wrote “Catherine the Great,” the 2014 No. 1 Black List script, she “never dreamed” that it would end up with Barbra Streisand directing, Keira Knightley starring, and Gil Netter producing.

“I met with Barbra and I think she was very attracted to Catherine, all the characters and their relationships, and the grandiose scale of it all,” she says of her script, which marks Streisand’s first directing job since 1996’s “The Mirror Has Two Faces.”

It also marks Anderson’s first produced screenplay.
The Orange County native started off in community theater, “but I was rather shy, so I got into writing,” she says.

Anderson made a brief detour into producing with the 2010 indie “Girlfriend,” “but once was enough,” she says of her producing days.

Re-focused on her writing, after “Catherine” she then adapted “Invisibility” for Warner Bros. and Di Novi Pictures and “Life and Death in Eden” for Eric Newman and Studio Canal. She’s writing the limited series “Mrs. Hemingway” at Amazon with Jude Law producing; “The Briefcase” for Paramount with Greg Berlanti and Casey Affleck producing; and “The Alienist” for TNT.

Jonas Cuaron

(“Desierto”)

Growing up with a famous father, acclaimed Mexican writer-director Alfonso Cuarón, was a “big advantage” that helped form Jonas’ voice as a writer.
“He’d pitch me stories on road trips together, and discuss movies, but I never thought I’d end up directing, as I always wanted to be a writer,” says Cuarón.

“It was through writing that I even got into doing films, and I can’t imagine directing anything I hadn’t written.”
Cuarón first wrote, then directed, produced, shot and edited the 2007 indie “Year of the Nail,” “which used still photographs and the writing to tell the story.” He next directed the documentary short “The Shock Doctrine,” which he also edited and shot.
Cuarón’s career took off at warp speed after he co-wrote the multiple Oscar-winning 2013 sci-fi thriller “Gravity” with his father. The film grossed more than $723 million.

Cuarón made his feature directorial debut with Mexico’s 2016 foreign-language Oscar entry, the border thriller “Desierto.”
He is now penning “a very loose adaptation” of “Zorro,” which he will direct.

Age: 33
Rep: Keya Khayatian at UTA
Inspirations: Spielberg’s “Duel,” Konchalovsky’s “Runaway Train”
In his words:
“It was through writing that I even got into directing films.”

Courtesy of Jonas Cuaron

Luke Davies

(“Lion”)

In the world of writers, Davies is a renaissance man: an award-winning poet, novelist, essayist and screenwriter of “Lion,” Garth Davis’ heartbreaking drama starring Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara, which opens this month.

Based on a true story about an adopted Indian boy who finds his birth mother as an adult marks a welcome change for the Sydney-born recovering heroin addict.

“For a long time I was a starving artist, and my addiction became part of my semi-autobiographical first novel ‘Candy,’ which was made into a film in 2006 with Heath Ledger, Abbie Cornish, and Geoffrey Rush,” says Davies.

In 2007, he moved to L.A.
“I came to check out representation, and then just stayed, but I really struggled for the first four, five years,” he admits. “I had no work, no forward movement.”

His break came when “Life,” his screenplay about James Dean, was made into a film directed by Anton Corbijn and starring Robert Pattinson, Joel Edgerton, and Ben Kingsley.

Davies recently adapted the memoir “Beautiful Boy” for Brad Pitt’s Plan B and New Regency with Felix Van Groeningen attached to direct.
“Brad will co-produce, and maybe also play the father,” says Davies, who’s writing a television miniseries adaptation of “Catch-22,” for David Michôd to direct.

Age: 54
Reps: Geoff Morley, Larry Salz, and Bec Smith at UTA; Eva Lontscharitsch at EML Entertainment
Inspirations: John Steinbeck, “Aguirre, the Wrath of God”
In his words:
“For a long time I was a starving artist.”

Courtesy of Luke Davies

Todd Komarnicki

(“Sully”)

Komarnicki is a prolific film and TV director, producer, screenwriter, and acclaimed novelist.

But he has no doubts about where his writing sits in the creative hierarchy.

“It’s No. 1, it’s my calling,” he says.

It was especially gratifying for Komarnicki to see his “Sully” screenplay turn into the hit Clint Eastwood movie starring Tom Hanks.
“Every writer’s fantasy in Hollywood is to see every word of your script up on the screen — and that’s how Clint works,” he says. “He’s so precise and clear, and really trusts the writing and what’s on the page, so there were very minimal rewrites. ”
The New York-based Komarnicki — whose credits include writing the thriller “Perfect Stranger” starring Bruce Willis and Halle Berry, and directing and writing the WWII drama “Resistance,” starring Julia Ormond and Bill Paxton — got his big break as a producer on the Will Ferrell blockbuster “Elf.” He just finished writing “The Greatest Gift.”
“[It’s] the true story behind ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ which I adapted from the novel ‘Flat Water Tuesday.”

Next spring, Komarnicki is set to direct “The God Four,” from his own script.
“It’s a sort of ‘Dead Poets Society’ drama set in the world of prep school rowing,” he says.
He also wrote the drama “The Professor and the Madman” starring Mel Gibson and Sean Penn, now in production, and co-wrote and co-produced “The Trainer” starring Liam Neeson.

Age: 51
Rep: CAA
Inspirations: “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Jerry Maguire,” “Three Days of the Condor.”
In his words:
“Every writer’s fantasy in Hollywood is to see every word of your script up on the screen.””

“He’s been a great friend and mentor to me,” says Milch, who set out to help craft a story (along with Gary Ross, who came up with the original idea and story) “of women doing their job well, who happen to be criminals. I think their power emanates from their excellence and skills that are deep-rooted in reality.”

Ross has also welcomed Milch to the set daily.
“I’m learning so much, just watching him and all these amazing actresses,” says Milch.

The daughter of David Milch (“Deadwood,” “NYPD Blues”), Olivia got her start by adapting William Faulkner’s novels and short stories. She landed a first-look deal with HBO and “gradually got more into writing screenplays.”
Frustrated by what she saw as “less than authentic portraits of female friendships,” Milch wrote the comedy-drama “Dude,” which follows four female best friends navigating the final two weeks of high school as they deal with “the first real losses in their young lives.”

“It should be out next year,” says Milch who recently adapted the popular graphic novel “Queen & Country” for Fox and Chernin Entertainment. She also sold her original half-hour drama pilot “Jefferson” to Amazon.

Age: 27
Reps: John Burnham, Ted Chervin, Bryan Diperstein at ICM; Jimmy Miller and Langley Perer at Mosaic
Inspirations: Judd Apatow, Orson Welles, Michelle MacLaren
In her words:
“I’m learning so much, just watching him and all these amazing actresses.”

Heather Waraksa

Jojo Moyes

(“Me Before You”)

The British screenwriter and novelist started off as a journalist. After 10 years, Moyes reinvented herself as a successful romance novelist, writing such best sellers as “Foreign Fruit,” and “Me Before You,” which sold over 8 million copies worldwide.

Moyes credits MGM for her segue into screenwriting.
“They called me in about wanting to adapt ‘Me Before You,’ and at the end of the meeting they asked me if I’d like to have a go at writing the script,” she says. “I think they also wanted to retain the British feel as well. I said yes before I’d fully realized what I’d taken on.”

Happily, Moyes turned out to be a natural.
“I found I absolutely loved screenwriting, which was a bit of a revelation this late in my writing career,” she says. “I’d actually taken a screenwriting course a couple of years earlier, but it didn’t work for me, so instead I talked to other screenwriters and then watched tons of films I admired and read the screenplays at the same time, which I felt was a far more valuable education.”
Her instincts proved to be spot on. The 2016 romantic drama starring Sam Claflin and Emilia Clarke grossed over $200 million worldwide.
Moyes has already written three more screenplays.
“The dream is to keep writing movies and novels.”

Noah Oppenheim

(“Jackie”)

Talk about a double life.
Oppenheim is the screenwriter of “Jackie,” Pablo Larrain’s critically acclaimed drama starring Natalie Portman as grief-stricken Jacqueline Kennedy in the days following President Kennedy’s assassination. But by day, Oppenheim, who won a screenplay award at the 73rd Venice Film Festival for “Jackie,”is senior vice president of NBC News and executive-in-charge of “Today..”
“Jackie” was Oppenheim’s first screenplay.

“I worked in TV as a producer and executive for the first decade of my professional life, and I then moved to L.A. for a few years to try and break into the entertainment business,” he says.

“That’s when I wrote ‘Jackie,’ and also co-wrote ‘The Maze Runner.’ Then NBC asked me to come back to the ‘Today’ show for the election cycle.”

Looking back on “Jackie,” Oppenheim feels he’s “both incredibly lucky and incredibly unlucky.”
“The script was well-received, and Darren Aronofsky came on as a producer, but then there were six years of ups and downs. It was quite an odyssey.”

Oppenheim’s own journey faces a “somewhat uncertain” future.
“It’s not easy writing screenplays, and also doing a full-time job, but if I stay in TV, I’ll figure out a way to keep writing movies.”

Age: 38
Reps: CAA; Guymon Casady and Darin Friedman at Management 360
Inspirations: William Goldman, Mike Nichols, Lena Dunham
In his words:
“If I stay in TV, I’ll figure out a way to keep writing movies.”

Pamela Ribon

(“Moana,” “Wreck-It Ralph” Sequel)

Before there were blogs, Ribon was one of the first people to have an online journal. “I was fortunate enough to have a smaller audience,” says Ribon, who also wrote episode recaps of “Gilmore Girls” and other shows for Television Without Pity. “When I made mistakes online, the whole world did not know. It was a place to learn boundaries and respect for other people’s stories.”

Ribon moved constantly as a kid (she attended 13 schools) and juggled odd jobs for years after graduating with an acting degree from the U. of Texas at Austin. The strangest: translating anime scripts to fit the mouth flaps, while doubling as a voice actor. “Often, you would write the joke backwards, because we don’t have a shorthand joke for a dragonfly bouncing across the screen means he’s a virgin,” says Ribon, who eventually moved to Los Angeles to try her hand writing for television, working on shows such as “Mind of Mencia” and “Samantha Who?” where she had the pleasure of reading others snark about her work.

Ribon also published several books, including “Why Girls Are Weird,” and wrote a spec that got her a meeting with Pixar. She had a hand in the upcoming Smurfs movie, and now works at Disney, where she co-wrote “Moana” and is part of the team on the “Wreck-It Ralph” sequel.

“Every job I ever had prepared me to work at Disney, from doing tech support at IBM, to sketch and improv comedy, to directing theater,” she says, looking back.
Ribon has several other original scripts in the works, including a couple half-hour pilots and feature “B-Fri,” about two best friends who pose as a lesbian couple to get two-for-one therapy, which David Schwimmer is attached to direct.

Age: 41
Reps: Greg Pedicin and Todd Christopher at Gersh; Alex Hertzberg at Hertzberg Media
Influences: Miranda July and Melanie Lynskey, for whom she’s writing a pilot “about a woman who’s trying to be a good mom and is also really good at drinking.”
In her words:
“Every job I ever had prepared me to work at Disney.”

Courtesy of Pamela Ribon

Allison Schroeder

(“Hidden Figures”)

When Schroeder began co-adapting the upcoming Fox 2000 feature “Hidden Figures,” based on the book by Margot Shetterly, the true story of three female, African-American mathematicians at NASA during the Cold War, the subject matter was already embedded in her DNA.

“I grew up a NASA baby in Florida,” she says. “My grandparents and dad all worked there, and then I interned there for four years during high school and worked for a missile launch company after my freshman year at college.”
She then channeled that family history and her own workplace experiences into a story that also deals with sexism and “what it was like to be a woman in science and mathematics back then.”

The film, which stars Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, and Kevin Costner, marks the biggest break yet for the lifelong writer who studied at Stanford and Oxford before attending USC film school.

“My first break was becoming a staff writer on the rebooted ‘90210,’” says Schroeder. “And then I got stuck writing in the teen genre for a while.”
She wrote “Mean Girls 2” and sold a pilot to MTV, but was restless and unfulfilled, and when a producer suggested switching to grittier fare, she happily “launched off in a new direction, writing action and drama.” First came an “apocalyptic drama, “Scorched Earth,” “which never sold, but it pushed me to try new genres;” and then “Agatha,” a spec script she sold to Paramount, which is in development. “I’m pursuing film and TV and it’s exciting, because I feel I can write in almost any genre now.”

Celine Sciamma

(“Tomboy,” “Water Lillies,” “Girlhood,” “My Life as a Zucchini”)

Over the course of three films, French writer-director Sciamma has proven a natural at capturing young characters. But those credits — atmospheric teen lesbian drama “Water Lilies,” 10-year-old trans portrait “Tomboy,” and black gang ensemble “Girlhood” — give only a limited impression of her talents, and disguise the fact that she loves writing for others.

Initially, Sciamma hadn’t planned to direct at all, but enrolled in the screenwriting track of Paris’ prestigious La Fémis film school. “Water Lilies” happened when producers took an interest in her graduate screenplay, while “Tomboy” was conceived as an attempt to bring a certain radicalism back to French cinema — not so much in subject (though it is that) as in approach: Sciamma wrote the film in 15 days and shot it in 20.
Those films caught the eye of “Wild Reeds” director Andre Téchiné, who was looking to tell a story about teenagers exploring their homosexuality.

Téchiné invited Sciamma to collaborate on the script for “Being 17,” resulting in his most pure, physically driven film in decades.
She was also contacted by stop-motion director Claude Barras, who invited her to adapt “My Life as a Zucchini,” about a troubled orphan adjusting to life in a group home. “I wanted to make a contemporary script for children, taking them very seriously as characters, while also speaking directly to them as an audience,” she says.
Online filmographies short-change Sciamma’s full range, leaving out the three years she spent writing for TV series “The Returned” and two features she has penned for first-time helmers, including the directorial debut of “Girlhood” composer Jean-Baptiste de Laubier.

Age: 38
Reps: WME; Daniele D’Antoni at Hapax
Influence: Noémie Lvovsky
In her words:
“I wanted to make a contemporry script for children, taking them very seriously as characters.”